Monroe Street blues

Earlier this year, a zoning hearing took place in West York. A warehouse owned by York Corrugating was up for sale on the corner of Monroe and Highland. Two young entrepreneurs intend to turn the old warehouse into an apartment building. Seems harmless enough. The business that owns the building no longer needs or wants it. The young developers have flipped other buildings successfully. The Borough might even see a slight raise in tax revenue. Seems like a pretty good deal, right?
Well, in order to turn this run down warehouse into apartments, the zoning must first be changed. In order to have a hearing on the matter, residents around the property are notified when the meeting is to be held, so they might add public comment or have concerns addressed. That's the ordinance, gotta love it.
The residents of Monroe Street did show up. almost all of them. There was a great civility about them. Concerns were discussed, and some were even for the project. Mostly, the people of Monroe Street did not want the apartment building to go in. Most of those people have lived in the area for a long time. They have seen duplexes divided up into apartments on all sides of the houses they own. They've seen tenants come and go. Some good neighbors, some not so good neighbors. Mostly, not so good. Now there was a fifteen unit apartment building being proposed at the end of there block.
There was also some mysterious mathematical formula used to get thirty cars parked in a space for, maybe, fifteen. This would intrude on the already cramped parking for the current residents. Needless to say, the developers didn't have a warm and fuzzy feeling coming out of the hearing. Counsel for the young gentlemen started the hearing with his intentions to appeal if not found in their favor. The judgment wasn't in the young guys favor, and the change of zoning was not approved.
As promised, the counsel for the two young developers filed an appeal, quicker then a lawyer chasing an ambulance. A letter was sent to the Borough Council President giving him the option to fight the appeal, or let it go through. In his Chamberland-like wisdom, he decided to negotiate with the developers. He somehow understood their plan to get thirty cars into a space maybe fifteen mini-coopers could fit into. The ideal of increasing tax revenue without having to do anything sounded great. In an election cycle even, how wonderful!
Even though, he was not at the zoning hearing, even though, he did not know what the people of Monroe Street thought or wanted. The Council President took the initiative and signed off on the appeal, assured by a slick lawyer, that they would do everything to make the transition as smooth as possible for the residents of Monroe Street. The people that didn't want it in the first place.
Well, it looks like there isn't much more injury that can come from this little story. Water under the bridge. Just like the drug deals that take place under the bridge next to this proposed apartment building.
Well it seems there is another chapter to this after all. Monroe Street residents were still upset about being fleeced. Some of them even went to a Borough workshop meeting to express their distress. We were dismissed, and questions went unanswered. I was one of those people. I explained how disgusted I was at the lack of respect given to the people of the Borough. I was told I was spreading fear. Fear? My family and I have lived beside an apartment building for the last several years. I have seen, an put up with all sorts of human refuse. There are only eight units in that building. Now they are going to allow another apartment building on the opposite side of the street with twice as many units.
Parking is already a problem. There is a proposal to make Monroe Street one way, and paint diagonal lines to allow for more cars. Thanks again for not inconveniencing those who you work for. Instead of coming up with a solution to the problem, it becomes exacerbated and rearranged. This is were we live. we don't need you to realign us. We want you to leave us alone. If you want a simple solution, buy the building, tear it down and make it a parking lot for the residents. Rent them spaces (look a revenue stream).
How hard is that? Where have all the sensible people gone? Thank God it's an election year, maybe we can fix all the silliness before it reaches your block.

Voter's guide submission October 2nd YDR

Why should voters choose you over the other candidates?*

A politician is someone who says something, meaning something else, while doing something entirely different, in order to stay in office.

I'm not a politician. I refuse to be.

I see things that are wrong, and they need fixed. I intend to fix everything I can.

The Borough has been short changed and sold out by the Liberals and Republicans-In-Name-Only. I want to end that.

The Borough belongs to the residents, no one else.

The tax dollars they pay are there own, no one else’s.

What do you think are the biggest issues facing your municipality and how would you address them?*

1) We need a full audit of the books to see where we stand. ~Then we need to figure out where we are going.

The direction I would like to see is...

2) More commerce into the Borough. ~ There are far too many commercial and industrial out parcels sitting vacant. We need to entice businesses to move in and create jobs. We need to do everything in our power to assure the businesses that are here, want to stay here.

3) True transparency. ~ People of the Borough need to know what is going on. Not everyone can attend Borough meetings. You can access the transcripts, but what good does that do? Decisions have already been made. I would like to enlist a forum to hear the concerns of the residents.

4) Lopsided governing. ~ For too long, a majority, dictated policy, usurped protocol, and affronted the wishes of the residents of West York. The days of making policy under the assumption of "they know better than everyone else", must come to an end.

In these tough economic times, would you rather raise taxes or cut services?*

Neither. Taxes are too high now for the services the Borough residents are receiving. Everyone in the country is tightening their belts, government is no different. We can't continue to "rob Peter to pay Paul". We can do what needs to be done with what we have. Sure, we would all like new parks and amenities, but now is not the time.